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Below we discuss in more detail the main types of infrastructure needed for the UK to meet its environmental goals, where we are now and what can be done to accelerate delivery as part of the economic recovery plan. Overall, it has been estimated that there needs to be a 16% reduction in car miles driven by 2030, assuming that the government brings forward the ban on the sale of new internal combustion engine (ICE) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) to 2030.1 In the absence of an earlier phase-out date than 2030, miles driven will have to be cut even further, by up to 60 per cent by 2030.2 This reduction in demand should be through behaviour change, and increasing investment in public and active transport. As well as reducing demand for private vehicle use, public transport needs to become lower carbon by 2030. The Committee on Climate Change recommends that 25 per cent of new bus and coach sales should be electrified and 25 per cent should be switched to hydrogen by 2030.3 Alongside this, electrification of all transport should be facilitated by a comprehensive rapid charging network for ultra-low emission vehicles. This is important to support uptake of electric cars over the next decade and should complement a ban on the sale of new polluting vehicles, including hybrids, in 2030. Estimates suggest that, for a scenario where EVs account for 60% of new car and van sales by 2030, at least 1,200 rapid chargers near major roads and 27,000 chargers around local towns and regions are likely to be required to meet service levels by 2030.4 If the phase out date for ICE is brought forward to 2030, the number of chargers will be significantly higher: new analysis shows that by 2030 the UK would require 240,000 slow public (3-22kW) and 62,000 rapid public (>50kW) charge points, as well as millions of home charge points.5 Overall, spending on sustainable transport infrastructure is not sufficient to get to where we need to be in 2030. For example, investment in walking and cycling made up only 1.2 per cent of total transport spending in 2018-19, or about £400 million, compared to nearly £18 billion spending on railways and £10 billion on local and national roads. This means that spending on walking and cycling by English local authorities outside of London was as small as £6 per person, or £4 per person for rural areas.6 Walking levels have remained relatively constant since 2002 in England, with around 60 per cent of adults walking at least once a week, while miles cycled have remained steady for the past five years (with a small increase since the coronavirus crisis). 7,8 Similarly, spending on public transport infrastructure, aside from railways, is very low. In 2018- 19, only eight per cent of public sector expenditure on transport was spent on local public transport, and there has been a £234 million fall in funding between 2010 to 2018 for local bus services. 9,10 Because of this, more than 3,000 bus routes have been cut back or withdrawn in England and Wales over the past eight years.11 The number of miles driven by buses is 22 per cent fewer than ten years ago. On the other hand, the number of miles driven in cars and vans increased by around two per cent between 2018 to 2019. Car miles driven have increased by 15 per cent since 2009, and van miles have increased by 36 per cent.12 Spending on electrification, including EV charging infrastructure, rail and buses, has been better. The government recently allocated £500 million to support the roll-out of EV fast-charging infrastructure, and announced £3 billion new spending on buses, including £50 million for electric buses. However, the number of charge point installations still falls short of what is needed for a 2030 ICE phase out date. Analysis by T&E shows that about 4,000 charge points should be installed per month over the next five years, but the average installation rate before the pandemic was of around 800 per month.13 Most importantly, the government needs to set the long term direction for low carbon transport policy, including the infrastructure required, by publishing its Transport Decarbonisation Plan this year. This should set out an ambitious pathway to reducing emissions in the transport sector. There also needs to be long term strategic vision for low carbon public transport and active travel, in a new National Bus Strategy, an updated Cycling and Walking Strategy and a new Traction Decarbonisation Network Strategy (for the unelectrified UK rail network). There also needs to be better guidance and resources for local authorities to be able to plan and implement low carbon travel strategies in their areas, including reforming various planning instruments like Webtag so they prioritise cuts in carbon and demand, rather than journey times. Annual spending on low carbon transport infrastructure should increase: we calculate there is an annual spending gap of £7.9 billion on transport infrastructure over the next four years from 2020-21, to meet the net zero carbon target. With regards to EV charging infrastructure, the government needs to provide more detail on how it plans to invest the £500 million pledged. While much of the wider EV charging network could be delivered through private financing, public investment will also be key for roll out where cost of grid upgrades would limit coverage or where the business case is weak to ensure national coverage. There are also specific ‘shovel-ready’ projects which the government could use in a stimulus package as the economy recovers from the coronavirus pandemic, to create jobs and economic growth. For example, research by the TUC suggests that £1.2 billion of investment would cover the purchase of 4,000 electric buses. This would create 10,000 jobs over the stimulus period of two years.14 Other work has found that a shovel-ready project to ensure that half of all UK towns and cities have best practice cycle lanes and pedestrianisation, which requires public investment of £7.9 billion, would create 103,000 jobs over the stimulus period of two years. Various combined authorities also have projects that would qualify as shovel-ready and would increase walking, cycling and public transport use.15,16 Similarly, although much of the investment for accelerating EV roll-out is now in place, the government needs to provide more detail on how it plans to invest the £500 million pledged to drive roll-out and create jobs. There are a number of shovel-ready projects that could use this money in the stimulus period, including some of the 54 strategic sites for ultra-rapid chargers that National Grid has identified as needing invigoration, so every person in the UK is within a 30-mile radius of a rapid charger.17 There is also potential to expand the rural EV charging network. Research suggests that accelerating roll-out of rural EV charging infrastructure to cover 56 per cent of rural businesses, requiring investment of £2 million, could provide 23,700 jobs in manufacture, installation and maintenance over the two year stimulus period.18 The Committee on Climate Change estimates that all practicable lofts should be insulated by 2022, six million cavity walls should be insulated and two million solid walls should be insulated by 2030 to meet the fifth carbon budget (under their central scenario), which means 21,000 installations per week. 19,20 Deep retrofit of buildings should also be scaled up as it would deliver significant carbon savings with fewer numbers of installations. Green Alliance estimates that deep retrofit of four million homes by 2030 would achieve similar emission savings as the measures outlined above.21 The Committee on Climate Change also estimates that the UK will need between 2.3 and 3.3 million heat pumps to be installed in existing homes by 2030, with low carbon heat representing a quarter of the share of heat in buildings by 2030. 22 It also recommends the installation of ten million hybrid heat pumps by 2035 and one million homes connected to low carbon heat networks by 2030.23 E3G suggests the UK should set a target to reduce heat related emissions by 50 per cent in 2030 compared to today.24 The energy efficiency of existing buildings is a long way from where it needs to be to reach our targets for 2030. Only about 30 per cent of existing homes are the bare minimum of efficiency needed to meet our net zero target, EPC Band C.25 There are currently only 2,100 insulation measures being installed per week under the Energy Company Obligation scheme compared to the one million measures required to reach the government’s goal of all homes being EPC Band C in England in 2035. 26,27 The installation of low carbon heat in existing buildings is also very low. Overall 84 per cent of UK homes in GB use mains gas as their main heating fuel, while low carbon heating technologies like heat pumps currently only account for 1 per cent of annual heating system sales.28,29 To meet our net zero goals, we need to be retrofitting 20,000 homes a week from 2025 to 2050. The Government’s Clean Heat Grant, due to come into effect from 2022, is only attempting to support 12,500 homes a year. At that rate, it would take 1,500 years to install the 19 million heat pumps required to meet our climate goals.30 Some heat pumps may be installed as part of the government’s Green Homes Grant, though it is not possible to estimate yet the scale of uptake.